leeman: what made me think that you'd know Talisman ? As far as I know my uncles game is complete and undamaged and he has the Dungeon expansion that he never played :/ He rarely plays the game, because of the reasons you mentioned, but refuses to sell it. and thanks for the Runebound tip, found it on Amazon and it sounds pretty much like Talisman....might get it once I get my next paycheck

I play D&D with my younger sister as GM, Or I DM for my friends and father and sister (Sorry bout' the bad grammer). The only board game I really play is monopoly, with my friends.

I play as one of the playable monster races in the second monster manual, as a monk. Posion dusk lizardfolk rule. He's a first level character, but he has a 19 ac when naked and +10 to his hide skill. jeezus. His name's Narachnio Farthest."Tho becuth he haff Fangth, I haff too thpek withh a lithp whunefer I thpeek I charuter. thpeech ith a bits."

Years ago, my friends and I were really into D&D (2nd Editon rules). My older brother, over the years collected many of the hard covered books (Players Handbook, Monster Manual, DM Guide etc) and probably a dozen of the models. I remember the Giant series (G series), D, B, A series - I can't remember them all. A few years later, my brother gave them to me as he knows that I'll take care of them (I used to collect a few comics and mags - so I had them sealed up, boarded and stored - I'd imagine their probably worth a few bucks at this point)A few years back during the Neverwinter Nights mod craze - I actually found and download a few of these NWN mods that I remember playing with paper and dice as a kid. (ie: G1 - Steading of the Hill Giant Chief) What's even more interesting (when I took my printed G1 mod out of of it's bag and sat down to compared it to the NWN mod) is that the NWN mod author had taken the time to duplicate my original printed module perfectly - even the 2d NWN maps were created to scale vs my printed maps. Someone really took the time to make this mod accurate. Gary Gygax (sp?) the original D&D author (of the manuals and many of the original modules) would be proud.

I also played a little Gamma Wars (Nuked future world RPG), Traveler (Space Tactical Combat RPG) and Rune World (more detailed D&D type RPG) but nothing was a fun as the original D&D. Now, I'm playing Baulders Gate 2 now and I'm still trying to get a feel for the new (3rd Edt?) rules.

Started with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, followed with Ninjas and Superspies, and then descended into the mixed-bag that is Rifts. Played those for a little while but, being elected as the GM / DM for the group, I found that I detested the use of dice. I felt they slowed the story down, put all the session's focus on these long-ass battles that were oftentimes inconsequential -- your players vs. bandits or whatever, just so you could introduce another plot-point that would pay off later.

Eventually started making up my own games with my friends and dropped the dice altogether. What I say goes. The stories are far better and deeper, the action tends to be more freeform and creative -- overall, a better way of handling it, IMO. I don't begrudge anyone their positive experiences with the dice games, but I could never go back to playing them. We tried briefly about six months ago, even trying out D&D for the first time. We did everything traditionally, except I added in some special things that everyone agreed made the system work better. Still didn't get into it as well, so we reverted back to our style.

Much of what makes storytelling as powerful as it can be is pacing, which is pretty much thrown out the window using dice in these games. And to the people I GM for, the stories and characters are the most important things. Taking an hour out of the storyline to fight something wasn't acceptable. To be honest, the players were shocked with my decision at first as well; they couldn't imagine playing without dice. But they were willing to give it a chance. Within a single session, they were all converts; it allowed them more flexibility of action, quicker response time, and it kept things moving at a healthy clip. Something that would ordinarily have taken several game sessions now only took one, which made each session seem more densely packed with content.

I'm not saying it would work with everyone; I'm simply saying that it works for us. And to a point that dice roleplaying is no longer an option for any of us.